Onside TV Production selects Nevion’s VideoIPath and Ventura solutions for transporting live content from 16 football stadiums over IP
Video services management platform and JPEG 2000 compression solution provide significant cost savings
Sundbyberg, Sweden, 1 June 2011 – Nevion, a leading video transport solutions provider for broadcasters, service providers and government entities worldwide, has announced that Onside TV Production, a full-service production facility owned by the Swedish Football Association (Svenska Fotbollförbundet; SvFF) and Svensk Elit Fotboll (SEF), has invested in its VideoIPath video services management platform, which was launched at the NAB Show last month. Onside TV has implemented VideoIPath along with Nevion’s Ventura JPEG 2000 compression solution to transport live content from 16 football stadiums across Sweden—from Gävle in the north to Malmö in the south—over IP.
The Nevion solutions are being used to transport live SD content, such as news, interviews, clips and match updates, from 16 local production studios owned and operated by KLUBB TV, the media production arm of SvFF, at the top men’s teams’ stadiums over a 100Mbps IP circuit, using just three decoders. The content is delivered to Onside TV’s central facility, which packages the content for their customers who range from local and regional broadcasters to Web-based sites and other media. Before implementing the Nevion solution, KLUBB TV could only make file-based transfers from each stadium.
Onside TV is using VideoIPath’s Web-based tools to manage content, as well as for scheduling, provisioning and complete monitoring of video-over-IP services. VideoIPath makes it simple to dynamically shift the connections to wherever they’re needed, whether scheduled in advance or on an ad-hoc basis. This provides significant efficiency and cost benefits, eliminating the need for 16 individual connections.
“VideoIPath serves several critical functions for Onside TV,” said Ikbal Ustrali of Onside TV Production. “First, the ability to link to 16 different locations on an as-needed basis enables us to produce and deliver content to our customers in a very rapid and flexible way. It would’ve been too costly to set up that many permanent connections. This way, we can have three connections at any given time, receiving content where and when it makes sense, according to the match schedule. VideoIPath handles the details and monitors the transmissions to make sure that all goes well.”
Nevion and Onside TV worked closely with JMG, a Swedish-based broadcast equipment supplier. JMG has a longstanding relationship with both Onside TV and Nevion, for whom they provide local product support.
All 16 football stadiums have an identical setup featuring two Sony BRC-Z700 robotic cameras, a handheld SONY XDCAM EX3 camera, and a Mac workstation with Final Cut Pro for local editing. Each robotic camera can be operated remotely from Onside TV Production’s central facility or from the local KLUBB TV studio. Content can be streamed in real time, with VideoIPath making the connection to the central site. Producers can set up video-over-IP connections and record directly to Onside TV Production, or locally to the Mac workstation, transferring the files using EditShare at a later time. The entire process is managed over IP.
At KLUBB TV, SD video is compressed and mapped to IP using Nevion’s Ventura VS901-IED-GE JPEG 2000 encoder/decoder cards. Identical cards are deployed at both the transmission and reception ends of the system, since the VS901-IED-GE can function as an encoder or decoder.
About VideoIPath
Nevion’s VideoIPath video services management platform addresses the complexity of deploying video-over-IP services. By adding a network abstraction layer, VideoIPath allows users to provision and monitor services without having to consider detailed configuration settings in each network element involved. The platform auto-detects available video end-points and allows the user to set up connections by selecting the appropriate video end-points and service profile.
Using standard Web technologies and a user-friendly graphical interface, VideoIPath provides a complete overview of scheduled and in-service connections from one console. Broadcasters can schedule connections based on service profiles, monitor video ports and bandwidth utilization, and access map and timetable views for video services. The platform eliminates the need to manually perform configurations in each element. Additional advanced capabilities include bandwidth utilization management and calculation of forward error correction (FEC) settings for the most efficient use of infrastructure with the right quality of service.
VideoIPath also provides inventory management and monitoring of available video ports, video-over-IP service profiles with QoS calculation (FEC), a map view for video services and ports, timetable view for video service ports, a dashboard view for equipment management, and API for integration with other systems. It works in conjunction with Nevion’s flexible hardware solutions, which are designed to efficiently transport existing video formats over IP infrastructures.
About Ventura VS901
Capable of mathematically lossless JPEG 2000 compression at a bit rate of 600Mbps, VS901 products provide the highest quality JPEG 2000 compressed SD/HD video and transport over a variety of network protocols. Their low latency and high visual quality make the ideal solution for interactive or delay-sensitive applications. In addition, VS901s guarantee the highest possible visual quality with absolute minimal degradation through multiple encode/decode cycles. This provides optimum source content for final encoding via MPEG-2/H.264 and distribution to the home. In a complete video transport chain, this maximizes quality while preserving bandwidth, for gains in cost efficiency and increased customer satisfaction.
About Nevion
Moving beyond video transport to fully managed and controlled video services, Nevion manufactures award-winning systems for broadcasters, service providers and government agencies worldwide. Highly modular solutions encompass IP and optical transport, state-of-the-art compression and routing for any video format over any network infrastructure—within buildings or across continents. With the industry’s greenest and most scalable products, Nevion preserves quality while delivering video from content acquisition through distribution. By creating new service-offering opportunities or minimizing costs, Nevion enables its customers to move, manage and monetize video content. World headquarters in Sandefjord, Norway, with U.S. headquarters in Oxnard, California; Nevion also maintains offices in Oslo, Chicago, London, Dubai, Beijing and Singapore. For more information please visit www.nevion.com.
